Sambujak Productions is currently working on post-production of their upcoming project “Trees”, which will be screening on Friday, December 9th. Keep an eye on the Production Website, and check them out on Facebook and Twitter!

This semester our first-year students will be producing 16 thirty-second commercial spots over the next couple of months (2 per week). The goal is to train students in the entire production process, from pitching an idea, right through to production and post. This isn’t all about just running out the door with a camera and shooting, but about the planning, logistics that need to go into making a production happen.

By strange coincidence, the first two commercials this year are alcohol-related!

For a bit of background, each student production company (usually group of 5) is required to produce two 30-second commercials this term, and we stipulate that at least one of them must be a real client (to give the project a bit more of a reality-check).

First up was a project for Heineken Beer which illustrates the old saying about, boy meets girl, boy chooses the wrong beer, other boy who chooses the “right” beer gets the girl.

Second up, was a spot for Industry Bar & Grill in Richmond selling on the idea that no matter what might happen by accident, it’s all good for this bar’s patrons!

Switching gears slightly with the first-year Television & Video Production students, we’ve moved from training on live multi-camera production to single-camera electronic field production (EFP). Check out our Gallery for more photos!

In order to develop these skills, our first-year faculty members, John Mills, David Griffiths, and Ashif Jivraj decided to model a small production for our students and shoot a 30 second commercial for Coast Mountain Bus Company (part of Translink).

This production process is not just about heading out to a location with a crew and a camera, but included everything from site surveys, to obtaining the necessary insurance and contracts to put this production together. Make no mistake, this is a lot of work, and our students will be doing the same on their own productions!

The process introduced both sets of first-year students to the skills and on-set coordination necessary to work in the film and television industry. While we’re not a film school (and we would argue that we are better), many of the same skill-sets apply no matter if you’re working with digital technology or film stock.

In this case, we are shooting on Panasonic HPX-300 P2 HD cameras. The first day of shooting was in AVC-Intra 100 at 1080-24PN, and the second day in DVCProHD 720-24PN, just for the sake of trying something different.

The students will be producing their own commercials in HD in the coming weeks, check back for more updates and the final products that are uploaded to Vimeo and YouTube!